Is 'Rise' a good jumping in point for series newcomers?

[Neon_Reaper]

I saw that the MH series seems to be on sale, and seeing as I have a b-day coming up, I'd like some help deciding if I should try the games out or not. And whether World or Rise would be the better choice. Basically I have some questions that maybe some series vets could answer.

1. Are any of the games worth playing solo? Is there a significant amount of content that a SP could complete/enjoy, or are friends a must?

2. I hear that these games are difficult. How so? Is it sorta like a soulsborn like, where the game requires a lot of patience and timing, or are enemies/bosses damage sponges and deal loads of damage, or is the game just really grindy?

3. Is there a high level of character customization? IK you can create a character, but are they completely covered by armor an hour in? Is there sort of transmog system, or are you pretty much forced into function over form?

If anyone wants to chime in with any answers or opinions or other info, I'd really appreciate it.

[Power]

1- You can play it 100% solo. With friends is a bit more fun, but yes, you can play 100% solo and still have a lot of fun.

2- A little bit of the three.

3- Yes, there is character creation and transmog, so you can basically wear any armor you like.

[JPM岩]

Yes. Rise is great for a newcommer.

1. Rise is great for a solo experience. Friends are nice, but definately not needed.
2. You have to learn a lot to not get bodied regularly. The end game does get grindy, but that's not the difficult part, that's the loop.
3. There's decent customization, but you do wear armor to cover up. There's a layered armor system later on.

[xep]

1. Yes, but hunts are harder solo. You can solo the entire game if you want to, even the hunts that are for multiplayer.

2. MH is an action game. The difficulty comes from learning the monster's moves and knowing when you should or should not be attacking them, what you should be attacking them with, and where you should be standing, etc. An average hunt will take you about 20-30 minutes if you're inexperienced, maybe a little longer.

I've never found MH grindy, but this depends on what you think grind is. Monsters have rare drops and you might not get it until you've done the same hunt many times. It's better now with regards to that, but you can still be unlucky.

There're also charms, but the grind of getting the best one will only bother you if you absolutely must have a perfect one.

3. There's a highly detailed character creator, but you also get covered by armour immediately. There is a transmog system. It is however traditional to wear a clown suit made of many different pieces while you're clearing the starting quests, I highly recommend doing this.

As to whether you should get the game or not, there's no time like the present. If you want to hedge your bets then get Rise standalone and if you enjoy it get Sunbreak too. MH is one of the best action games you can play right now.

[michaelroelant]

U should prob do world first before u do rise, doing it in reverse is not recommended

[Chomp Dude]

Rise is a pretty good starting point. If you have the money, start with Rise and work your way backward in the series. From Rise, World, GenU, 4U. If you're feeling even more adventurous try the first three games as well.

Rise is probably the most solo friendly game so far, with World requiring an internet connection for some of the content and alot of the older games having multiplayer focus for most of their own content.

The character creation is...sort of there. The most you can do with it is adjust faces, skin tone and hairstyles. No body modification unfortunately. Most of the appeal comes from the armor itself. Almost wish Capcom would rip the Dragon's Dogma's character creator.

[(ノ°□°)ノ]

Rise is a more arcade-y, hop on, hop off game.
While world is more longer sessions which may be a factor you want to consider.

Theyre both fantastic games playing either solo or multi. I think world has better multiplayer with randoms but rise has better multiplayer with friends.

Difficulty for newcomers will vastly depend on how fast you can get used to the wave of tutorials they frontload at you.

You are function over form until you unlock transmog, which comes late in the game. But there are mods if youre interested in them

[Confutionist]

1. All of them are worth playing solo and World and Rise scale to balance around it. Older titles not so much but still very much worth playing. In my opinion MH4U and onward are perfectly fine to play solo. Friends just increase the fun factor.

2.Its kinda comparable to a soulsborne boss fight. You have a character you control in 3rd person and you hit a monster with a weapon while dodging their attacks. Some monsters are harder than others, some weapons are harder than others.
In the end game alot more importance is placed on your gear as gear gives you skills. The skills are fixed so you can just look up the "best" build to have for your weapon at any point in the story. If your gear is on level with the monster your fighting its about 2-3 hits before death from full at end game.
If you play the games before World there will be times where your in a situation where no matter what you do you will get hit and that can chain into multiple hits which could lead to a cart. Rare but annoying and even more rare in world and rise. There are also skills that negate it happening if you want them.
In terms of grind the grind really is no problem, especially if your only using one weapon. Doubly so on pc as you can just cheat in anything you cant seem to get. I never felt the need to do so on any game but the option is there.

3. There is a below par level of character customization. Its fine and you can change it for real money. Armor customization in terms of transmog starts existing at all in World. Previous titles didn't have it. You can unlock the ability to make any armor piece look like any other armor piece. Weapons your stuck with them although that might chance in Rise soon. You can also just use mods on pc to look like anything.

[Midas]

Rise is a good jumping-in point, but honestly so is world. So are most of the titles. They don't follow each other in direct story or sequence, and all of them are generally designed with the assumption that new players will be starting from that title. Maybe fourth gen and second gen explain a bit less and throw a bit more at you, but of the most recent titles, both World and Rise are equally beginner-friendly. World has a bit more of a visual impact, due to being higher graphics.

1: Yes, it's very soloable. I play MH mostly solo, or just with 1 or two of my friends when we want to hunt together.

2: It's hard in the sense that the game is mostly about fighting bosses. Both the monsters you fight and the weapons you use are fairly technical, with a lot of moveset variation. The game is set up to reward you for becoming genuinely skilled with your weapons of choice, and intimately familiar with how the monsters behave.

3: There's a lot of head customization, less body customization, but there is sort-of transmog system where you can unlock armor sets to reskin other parts. You can also just hide any part of armor you like and all armor has at least one color channel you can customize. It's pretty flexible, honestly, and there's a ton of cool armor styles to play with.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by The_Neon_Reaper:

Is 'Rise' a good jumping in point for series newcomers?
I saw that the MH series seems to be on sale, and seeing as I have a b-day coming up, I'd like some help deciding if I should try the games out or not. And whether World or Rise would be the better choice. Basically I have some questions that maybe some series vets could answer.

1. Are any of the games worth playing solo? Is there a significant amount of content that a SP could complete/enjoy, or are friends a must?

2. I hear that these games are difficult. How so? Is it sorta like a soulsborn like, where the game requires a lot of patience and timing, or are enemies/bosses damage sponges and deal loads of damage, or is the game just really grindy?

3. Is there a high level of character customization? IK you can create a character, but are they completely covered by armor an hour in? Is there sort of transmog system, or are you pretty much forced into function over form?

If anyone wants to chime in with any answers or opinions or other info, I'd really appreciate it.

Long story short: go for a cheap Monster Hunter: World + Iceborne pack which has a slight advantage right now.

1. All games of the franchise are worth to be enjoyed solo. Friends are recommended but not a requirement, as it goes for any game.

2. The difficulty comes from clunky controls and that the game does not really take your hand to guide you through every little thing. You need to bring initiative along and make good use of all options available. There is no "auto-landing" mode.

3. "Transmog" unlockable.

I personally can recommend to you Monster Hunter Rise strongly, as it is the best new player experience in the series. You just need to bring the understanding along, that more content is on its way. And it that regards, if you pondering about affording it, Monster Hunter: World gives a more complete experience at the moment.

Ignore all details about the game and focus on this - if this is interesting enough for you then you should give the game a try:

It might sound banal, and yet a lot of people have troubles in describing what is Monster Hunter actually about. A general description would sound something like this:

"In Monster Hunter you are playing boss fights in different arenas".

Does not sound wrong, if you reduce it to the essentials, right?
A lot might even think "that sounds familiar ~ like Dark Souls". In fact, I would even say Monster Hunter is one of those games which are parents to the nowadays known as "souls-like-genre".

A common mistake made by a lot of younger players is how they miss out on what forged a strong Monster Hunter community in the past. Having the game considered as niche title among many mainstream games, with hardships heavily foreign to western audiences. Monster Hunter is so much more than just a matter of boss fights, rinse and repeat. It is about creating your own story, in a game which does not have much of a story itself. It is about challenges and overcoming those challenges.
It is about personal growth.

Different than many modern games the personal growth is not based on numbers which says how many experience points you gain after a battle, and how much your STR or CON grew in numbers. It is pure a matter of personal experience and real skill growth. Of course crafting armours can be considered a similar growth in numbers. But the core manifests in the armour and weapons you craft being a reward and proof that you have overcome the challenge to gain them. Something which is not reflected in experience points.

It is not the multiplayer part of the game which makes it so special to veterans like me. It is the fair challenge which the game is offering in a steady progression curve. Fair because it is entirely up to you to make the approach in hunting a monster. The amount of preparation, observation and training, the choice of weapon and tactic - the game gives you only enough for you to have a basic understanding. What you do with the tools is up to you. And before you notice you have grown from a fledling into an Ace hunter.

And when you start jumping into battles with a grin, you will think back of all the hardships you have overcome to reach that point of progress which allows you to grin. That kind of personal growth alongside your own personal story is what makes Monster Hunter ever so special.

[Egro]

Honestly world is far better for noobs MH than Rise. Better graphic, smooth gameplay, tons of contents and fairly forgiving fights. Rise is fun and improve many things but monster with bloated HP, mach 1 speed and slap like a truck is not really a thing for noob.

[PhoenixWing]

Both world and Rise is a great entry.

In Rise, you move/recover faster with wirebugs so it's not as clunky as other MH games, and the weapon movesets are also expanded with this system. Also with more QoL than World, Rise makes a great entry point. The multiplayer search system is arguably worse though, but seeing as you intend to play solo this point might be moot. (You even get companions to play with even if you're playing Solo in Sunbreak :D)

World, on the other hand, has great graphics and more detailed environments and more realistic feels. World's endgame investigations are also really fun. The clunkiness and less QoL might make you feel uncomfortable if you play Rise first, though.

If you're going to play both, I would recommend you to start with World, but if you will play only one game, I recommend Rise.

[Mr.Hmm]

As someone who started MH games on PC begin with World, I would suggest Monster Hunter World as entry point to Monster Hunter games for PC (I have never played the previous so cannot comment on that).

Rise is a good entry point too but i would 100% suggest world to begin with it, it will get you more familiar with the game.

Originally posted by Egro:

Honestly world is far better for noobs MH than Rise. Better graphic, smooth gameplay, tons of contents and fairly forgiving fights. Rise is fun and improve many things but monster with bloated HP, mach 1 speed and slap like a truck is not really a thing for noob.

As for the mach 1 speed its because if you play the game uncapped from 30 FPS(on PC) every monster will be 100% faster as it was proved( i am too lazy to google it but you can easily find video about it ).

Only reason nobody experiences that on switch its cause the game is capped to 30 FPS.

[Feto]

No, it's not a good "base". It has a lot of silly mechanics that hopefully won't be on the next main game in the series. Iceborne has some silly stuff too, but not to the level of Rise.

So if you are new, you are better of staring on World. Everything you learn there will be useful and most of the mechanics should translate to the next main game.

1. Both can be completed solo and it's not like a "super hard solo challenge" kind of thing. Monsters HP scale with the numbers of players, so they have less when solo and more with more players.

2. It's considered difficult because you have to learn monster patterns and react to them + learn how to use your weapon effectively at the same time. For some reason that's "hard" on modern games.

3. Plenty of armors to choose from and some look pretty nice. And yes, there's a transmog system so you can mix sets and still look fancy. And if everything else fails you can mod for more armor, hairstyles or whatever.

[Mika gunhild]

rise is a very good pick for newcomers, fluid combat and simple gameplay

however you still need some adjusting if you think this is like souls game, my advice go try the demo first before you bought the game, also yea the game are good both solo and MP

[Raz]

I'd say its 'fairly' new person friendly, though i'd argue that Monster Hunter World might be a better approach if you're 100% new to the series in general and wanna get eased into it a little more gently.

Monster Hunter World sorta takes you by the hand, and gently guides you up and over some obstacles, kinda politely pointing out what to do and what you 'should' be doing, patting you on the head and hugging you a little if you scuff up your knee. Not really babying you, but you never feel like you're in 'too' much danger till you're ready for it.

Monster Hunter Rise is the drunk, wine-chugging Aunt that picks you up while she's smoking a cig, tossing you into a giant, massive toybox. So many toys. So much stuff to do and see and collect. ...and most of it is now jabbing you in the eyes and ribs and oh god it hurts but you don't wanna get out
"Have fun, kid." she says as she sits nearby, only checking to see if you're still breathing once in a while.